Seed potato.

I'm new to gardening. Been learning a lot.
Like how the potatoes one buys from a grocer just don't produce.
So I found out that I need seed potatoes.

But every site I go to is out of stock.

Where do you guys get your seed potatoes from or is there a way to get the ones from walmart to grow?

I get the ones from walmart to grow huge pretty green plants but no actually potato roots.

I'll be growing them inside on my window with natural sun and grow lights.
I've had a ton of success doing this with many other vegs.

a reply to: scraedtosleep

Whoops. I usually order stuff from Gurneys but they're out too.
I ve saved seed taters for years, but they're usually so cheap to buy a 5 lb bag it's not worth the trouble and space in my garden.

a reply to: DAVID64

I think I waited to long.

Or there's a ct here involving not allow us to grow potatoes anymore! lol

a reply to: scraedtosleep


You can get a regular potato to grow by allowing it to get a good amount of eyes on it, cutting it in in smaller pieces with at least two eyes per piece, you can chit them or go right to planting them in a trench of fertile soil and then cover with 6-8" more soil. When the shoots are about 6" high back some soil into 2/3rds of the shoots and then repeat once more.

Yeah, you can do it with regular potatoes pretty easy. But the problem with potatoes is, they're pretty labor intensive to grow, and they take a lot of real estate for what you get. Plus, you have to consider that potatoes are pretty cheap to begin with, and the difference between garden grown and commercially grown really isn't that different. It's more bragging rights than anything with potatoes.

Depending on the strain of potato, you can get bunches of potatoes from one set of eyes, but to really get big potatoes (like you get in the store) you really need some specialized equipment to optimize how they grow over their life cycle.

And then, there's the harvesting part. Go out to the interwebz (not YT, unless you want to watch endless 15 minute videos with 3 minutes of content) and look for potato harvesting equipment. At least beets and other root vegetables you can plant from seed, but not potatoes. At the end of the day...I'll just buy potatoes from the market.

ETA - Onions (not green onions/scallions) are another one in this category.

Here's just a quick video which shows what it takes to harvest potatoes. Notice that every one of these tractors and harvesters is purpose built. This is BIG gear, in a big precision operation. Notice where the potatoes go with the front tractors, so the tractors, trucks and harvesters behind them don't run them over.

I've spent a lot to time in Idaho in my youth, and this is what potato farming looks like...

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus



Tried that twice and got a beautiful green tall potato plant. But no potato roots=no new potatoes.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Tried all that. Followed the vids. Bought the right soils and foods.

The store bought ones grow green plants but no potatoes.

That's why I want to try a none good seed potatoe.

You can usually get them from a small town hardware store. You could call around but depending where you are that might not be worth the drive.

I like the method of growing them under straw. It has worked well for me. They are easy to grow that way. But as Flyingclaydisk says...they aren't the most bang for your garden space buck.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Excellent points.

I still grow potatoes, but mostly for a few fun strains like red ones and blue ones.

I live on the west side of Montana by the Idaho border.

Every fall the county gets a trailer truck load of potatoes from Idaho that are perfectly fine, but kicked out of market because their shape is too irregular for market.

They sell them for 5 cents a pound and I have a root cellar soOo...

No sense growing THAT here.

And then, here's a look at the storage end of the process.

NOTE - I don't raise potatoes, never have (and there's a reason), so I have no affiliation with Spudnik or any other potato harvesting equipment, but as I noted, I have spent a great deal of time in Idaho (the potato capital of Earth) and seen many of these operations. I posted these videos only to show what it takes to harvest and store potatoes, and it will humble any home farmer! And, when you couple this with how cheap potatoes are at the market, there's almost no way you could want to grow potatoes anything short of the Apocalypse!

Storing taters...

AND, just as a point of trivia, I'd like to point something out...

There are actually people with graduate degrees, even PhD's about how to "pile" things like potatoes. They make big money!

I think there's even a name for it...something like Pile-ology, where they study how high you can pile a given product before it falls, or before it injures itself in the pile. All of this is part of Potatoes and harvesting.

Enjoy.

a reply to: scraedtosleep

Your looking to buy them out of season .

So you will have a hard time finding "seed tubers" for sale.

I grow enough organic potatoes for my family to last us a full year, I have 300 +square foot of garden space dedicated to potatoes, I am growing four varieties this year, Yukon gold, Russet, banana fingerlings, and purple fingerlings..

I work my soil soft to about 20 inches. And plant my potatoes just under the soil line, with maybe 1 inch of soil on top. If heavy rains expose my seed/tubers to the sun I cover with more soil. The deeper you plant them the deeper you have to dig,to harvest and the harder the root that grows out of the eye has to work to break daylight(less time making potatoes)


Also for bigger potatoes at harvest do not cut your potatoes seed/tubers into chunks, plant them whole, the bigger the starting chunk the bigger and healthier then end plant.. the seeds/tubers are cheap enough to not have to skimp and cut..

TL;DR

A lot of the potatoes that you buy in the store will not make good seed as they have been sitting for quite along time and might/mostlikely have been hit with a nasty herbicide or other chems to delay the potatoes from making eyes.

I would grow lettuce and other greens in the box until you can purchase viable seed/tubers next season.. you can find them semi/fresh at your local agway, or if you have to one of the bigger chains.

I'd also suggest banana fingerlings as a variety to grow as they have a shorter grow period.


Good luck!

Respectfully,
~meathead

a reply to: scraedtosleep

I am a bit of a gardener, and tried potatoes one year....they have a lot of above ground greenery.

I think you waited too long.
They need a certain number of days to produce, and normally I've seen them in catalogs and garden centers in the spring.

If you get some potatoes from the store, soak them in water for a little while to remove most of the antisprouting chemicals on them. then they will start to sprout if they can. Lately we have been having lots of sprouting potatoes, I just soak them and bring them out to the potato field. They put antisprouting chemicals on them to keep them from sprouting. It is some sort of anhydrate.

I grow potatoes every year, been doing that for over fifteen years in my tater garden. It does not produce much, and the potatoes tend to be smaller now, but I don't have to buy seed potatoes anymore, I learned how to work with the store bought ones. I had potatoes growing out in the woods too, I planted the peels, I still see an occasional plant out there, but after many years, they do not produce much potatoes, just about an inch in diameter.

I like the new potatoes, they are ready about two weeks after the plants blossom. The deer seem to go eat the potato plants after they start to blossom though, that sucks. Oh well, I feed the deer potatoes almost every day, I get the cheapest ones I can find in the stores on sale. We have some does with fawns coming up to the deck now, sometimes there will be a doe with one fawn, sometimes one doe will have four fawns it is looking after. Babysitting club I suppose, the does alternate with the fawn sitting. There are three does I think, but I cannot tell them apart very well, those brown ladies all look alike.

I grew up on a potato farm and the secret to growing potatoes is to plant fairly early and dig out potatoes from under the plant for dinner, the baby potatoes are great tasting right out of the garden in the summer, and potatoes of any quality are expensive this time of year. It pays to harvest throughout the summer and the skins just scrub off with a soft brush, no peeling needed.

If you do plant store potatoes without washing them, the antisprouting chemical will slow the growth of all potatoes near by. I soak the potatoes for about fifteen minutes or more, then even add more water and rinse.

originally posted by: DontTreadOnMe
a reply to: scraedtosleep

I am a bit of a gardener, and tried potatoes one year....they have a lot of above ground greenery.

I think you waited too long.
They need a certain number of days to produce, and normally I've seen them in catalogs and garden centers in the spring.

Once you plant potatoes in your garden, they are coming up every year. Also, potatoes put out chemistry that can cause some sorts of veggies not to grow well when you have gone back to other veggies. I keep the potatoes seperate. Also if you plant tomatoes and potatoes too close together, you seem to get all plant and no tomatoes or potatoes. They are competative, you need to keep them seperated by quite a distance.

originally posted by: scraedtosleep
Tried that twice and got a beautiful green tall potato plant. But no potato roots=no new potatoes.

Oh well, worked for me. I just found that the juice wasn't worth the squeeze, too labor intensive for the return and I needed a dedicated area to grow them.

originally posted by: rickymouse
Also if you plant tomatoes and potatoes too close together, you seem to get all plant and no tomatoes or potatoes. They are competative, you need to keep them seperated by quite a distance.

I believe it's because they're both in the nightshade family.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Really cool videos.

It's crazy how much real work and effort goes into these jobs.

a reply to: Mike Stivic

Right now I'm starting small. Trying to see what I can get to grow in a controlled environment with little space.

I wish I was doing what your doing.

Living the dream.